Chapter Thirteen

Fawkes

"What's going on here?" James and the other Gryffindor boys had left the Potions classroom and stumbled upon the most tense exchange I had ever been apart of in my seven years of Hogwarts.

Black sneered, her eyes glinting maliciously as she took in the new numbers. It was a much more even playing group and even though I was a strong, independent woman I still felt relief at seeing my boyfriend come to my aid.

Thank you. I whispered to him in my head. He couldn't hear me but he looked over to see if I was hurt in any way.

"Well, well, well." She sneered. "Look who's come to join in. A bunch of blood traitors." She pointed her wand at me threateningly. "Don't think that'll stop us Mudblood."

I sneered back. "You know what will stop you?" I pointed behind them. "Professor Dumbledore."

She and the other Slytherin's whipped around quickly, I laughed mockingly as Professor Dumbledore wasn't actually there. Black hissed and turned back around, her wild mane of hair twirling madly behind her. "That pathetic excuse for a wizard isn't fit to wipe my shoes, let alone be headmaster."

James pulled out his wand and jabbed it at her, causing soap suds to rinse her mouth out. "Take that back." He demanded.

I watched him anxiously, leaning over to push his wand arm down. "James don't, they're not worth it."

Bellatrix cackled, looking behind her at her cronies and spitting the soap out of her mouth. "You shouldn't have done that." She seethed lowly.

The crowd of students surrounded us as they left the Potions classroom, Marlene was one of them and she rushed over to join us. The other students didn't seem to pay our group much mind as they chatted to one another and went to their respective common rooms.

Malfoy threw a stunner once we were in the clear, heading straight for Alice, it caught her unaware and threw her down onto the hard stone floor a few feet down the corridor.

"Alice!" I shouted, turning to run and see if she was okay, Nott threw a spell at me causing me to throw up a hasty Shield Charm which threw it back at him, sending him flying down the corridor as it had done to Alice. I raced down and threw myself onto the floor by Alice as the others engaged in a duel. James was facing Malfoy while Sirius was against Bellatrix.

Remus and Peter were against the other two, Remus more so than Peter was doing most of the work. I threw a Stunner at Avery who had started doing a complicated wand movement, rendering him unable to speak. I then disarmed him, sending his wand out of his hand. He threw me a furious look, unable to speak or help his friends.

"We need some help." I muttered to Alice, casting Enervate on her. She gasped as she came back around, reaching for her wand furiously as she looked at the fight.

"Lily," She started. "I know you don't want to fight but someone has to teach them a lesson and if it has to be us then so be it." She threw a spell at Snape who for the first few minutes of the fight had his attention on James, he tried to get behind him to surprise him but Alice had noticed and sent him spiraling away. He landed heavily against the wall.

A curse was sent our way and we ducked, the spell hit the wall behind us causing it to explode. Shards of rock hit both of us, I felt the stinging on my face that told me that I was now bleeding from various cuts. I healed Alice's as best as I could before we looked back at the fight. Remus and Peter had managed to try Nott up who was struggling madly between spitting curses at them.

Bellatrix and Sirius were both panting, cuts adorned both of their bodies and they were throwing an assortment of curses at one another. James had just disarmed Malfoy and that is when we heard a cry.

A phoenix called as it appeared in a rush of flames. I jumped away as it appeared too close to me, not burning me but I felt the heat of it. What was Professor Dumbledore's pet doing here?

Another thought that occurred to me at that moment was how had Professor Slughorn not heard this commotion? I looked towards his office door and debated about knocking on it.

Fawkes trilled again, causing a warmth to sweep through my body and I hadn't realised my eyes were closed until I opened them once again. The distraction of the Phoenix was enough that the rest of the Slytherin's were either disarmed, stunned or tied up. I adjusted my head girl badge, hoping that Fawkes wouldn't mean the arrival of Professor Dumbledore as that could mean losing it.

"Is everyone alright?" I spoke up, ignoring the hateful stares from the Slytherin's who were awake.

"I think so." Remus answered, mopping up one of his cuts. I went over to him and healed the small scrapes that I could see.

"What do we do with them?" Alice asked, motioning to the mess of seventh years spread out in the corridor.

"I say we leave them." Sirius said, looking down at his cousin with distaste in his eyes. "They would have done a lot worse to us than that."

"I agree." Peter piped up.

"We can't leave them." I said. "James and I are Head Boy and Head Girl, we can't leave students lying around stunned and tied up."

James hummed in agreement. "But what we can do is report them."

"But you cast the first spell." I argued, turning to him.

"In defence of Professor Dumbledore." He muttered, kicking at the floor but knowing I was right. His eyes lit up suddenly. "I know what we can do."

James' idea consisted of us stuffing the Slytherin's into a broom cupboard and then casting the Enervate charm on them and untying them when we were a safe distance away. It was a basic plan but it worked well enough for our needs.

Fawkes had remained with us as the day progressed. I turned to James as we were alone, wondering what to do with him.

"Fawkes." I said to the majestic bird. "Don't you want to go back to Professor Dumbledore?" I asked pleadingly. Fawkes gave me a look of confusion as though it was an insane suggestion and preened his feathers as he sat on James' shoulders.

"It doesn't look like he's gonna budge." James said, stroking a golden feather.

I grumbled at him. "Not if you keep petting him he's not."

He laughed at me, eyes twinkling happily behind his glasses. "Why don't we just go to Dumbledore's office and give him back ourselves?"

I couldn't find fault with that suggestion and so we started walking in that direction. "Don't you think it's a bit weird that Fawkes came along? I've never seen him outside of Dumbledore's office before and especially not when students are dueling."

James shrugged, accidentally making Fawkes irritated at his post being moved without warning. "Sorry Fawkes. I do think it's a bit odd." He admitted. "It's almost as if he knew something bad was happening."

I knew Phoenix's were incredibly smart animals but I'd not heard of them getting in the middle of petty squabbles before. I had also thought it was odd that he didn't seem to mind our stuffing the Slytherin's on top of one another in a small broom cupboard. Maybe he sensed how awful they all were?

We made it to the statue that guarded Professor Dumbledore's office and gave it the password "Cockroach Clusters" causing it to spring into action, the stairway revealing itself to us as it spiralled upwards.

I gulped as we got closer. Fighting with other students is not exactly Head Girl material and not exactly something I wanted to do. What if he knew what I had done? I felt my hands start to sweat whereas James looked completely relaxed as we went up the staircase. He knocked on the door and we waited a second.

"Enter." James pushed the door open for the two of us. Professor Dumbledore was sitting at his desk, quill scratching away at some parchment as he concentrated on it before looking up at us.

"Ah, there you are Fawkes." He smiled at his pet. "Mr Potter, Miss Evans, thank you for bringing him back to me." He stood and held out an arm, Fawkes trilled and flew over to him, landing softly. "He has a new habit of travelling around the castle without permission."

"Must be quite troublesome, Sir." I said, smiling at him nervously.

"Fawkes has an uncanny ability to sense when someone is in trouble." He continued, looking at the two of us with twinkling blue eyes. "I hope that it wasn't either of you that need his assistance?"

"No Sir." James said, hands held behind his back as he tilted on his feet.

Professor Dumbledore smiled at us, putting Fawkes on his perch and sitting back down, motioning for us to take a seat. "Well that is good news." He pet the Phoenix. "Is there anything you would like to tell me?" He asked lightly.

I shook my head as James spoke the negative.

"You're both free to leave." He said. "But know this, help will always be given to those at Hogwarts who ask for it." He said mysteriously, leaving James and I mystified as we turned to leave his office.

We remained in silence as we went down the staircase. "How do you think he knew?" I asked, leaning on my boyfriend as we regained our senses.

He shrugged, pulling me closer as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "Brilliant man, Dumbledore." He steered us in the direction of the Gryffindor common room and I happily walked alongside. I reached up to press a kiss against his cheek.

Once we reached the portrait hole and said the password, we entered to see our friends all sat around the sofas by the fireplace. Mar

AN: Hi everyone, hope you guys like this chapter! I wasn't too sure about the Fawkes thing but it kind of came to me and when I went to rewrite it, my brain didn't allow me to!

So I hope you guys liked it, let me know what you think. If you would like to see anything in the upcoming chapters and if you have any constructive criticism.

I hope you all had a great Halloween!